HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP — Hopewell Valley school board member Jim Wulf and two others have filed a lawsuit to block a public referendum on whether the township should assume ownership of a county road in order to lower the speed limit in front of Bear Tavern Elementary School.

The civil suit, filed in Mercer County Superior Court on Wednesday, claims the wording of the referendum and the accompanying interpretive statement are illegally biased against the acquisition. The suit also claims that the township committee missed the filing deadline to put the question on the November ballot.

“Here, the late filing invalidates the referendum, regardless of its content. However, the referendum is also laden with bias and inaccuracies,” the suit states. “The Township Committee cannot act as an advocate for one answer over the other, and voters cannot be polled (even when the vote is non-binding) through misleading questions and interpretive statements.”

Mayor Vanessa Sandom said the township has received a copy of the suit and has forwarded it to the township attorney for review.

“We will be filing a legal response in the next few days,” Sandom said.

The suit is the latest chapter in an ongoing battle over speed limits in front of Bear Tavern Elementary School. Residents, parents, and the Hopewell Valley School Board have asked Mercer County to lower the speed limit in front of Bear Tavern Elementary School from 30 mph to 25 mph when children are present. They argue that the lower limit will keep children safer.

The county has refused the request, saying traffic studies do not justify the speed reduction. Implementing a lower limit would violate standards and open the door to legal challenges, county officials have said. Instead, the county offered to give the township the a 1.5 mile section of the road and let the municipality set the speed limit.

In an Aug. 26 vote, the township committee agreed to let voters decide the issue in a binding referendum on the fall ballot.

But residents have opposed that referendum, saying the wording is not bias-free, as required by law.

“Among other things, it repeatedly stresses that Hopewell Township will undertake numerous maintenance responsibilities for the road; it characterizes those responsibilities as unduly burdensome, costly, and oppesive, using inflated cost estimates and incorrect calculations, ” the suit asserts. It also states that the referendum fails to mention the safety benefits of lowering the speed limit.

The suit also alleges that the township filed the referendum with the county clerk 11 days past the deadline for submitting a non-binding referendum. County Clerk Paula Sollami put the referendum on the ballot as binding, but the township’s own counsel has said that the question, by law, could not be a binding one, the suit alleges.

“The Township Committee’s late rerendum request should be invalidated as a matter of law, and the Mercer County Clerk should be enjoined from putting it on the ballot,” the suit concludes.

Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami, who is also named as a defendant in the suit, referred all questions to county attorney Arthur Sypek.

Sypek declined to comment, citing county policies on pending litigation.

Resident Adam Finkel and Bear Tavern parent Catherine Kavanaugh, are the other two plaintiffs in the suit.

“The referendum is illegal and makes a mockery of an impartial ballot question,” Finkel said. “We repeatedly tried to explain this to the township and the county, but they refused to listen.”

Wulf declined to comment other than to say he filed the suit as a citizen not on behalf of the school board.

Hopewell Valley schools superintendent Thomas Smith said the district was unaware Wulf was filing the suit. He said that while the district is in favor of lowering the speed limit in front of Bear Tavern Elementary School, it has taken no position on the acquisition of the roadway.